by Harish Gupta, National Editor, Lokmat
EXCLUSIVE
Harish Gupta
New Delhi, Dec 6 :
The Central government
established its first contact with the Congress for the smooth passage of the
long pending GST Bill when Union finance minister Arun Jaitley met the deputy
leader of the Congress party in the Rajya Sabha Anand Sharma. The meeting lasted for nearly an
hour on Saturday and Jaitley took time out in between the marriage ceremony
functions of his daughter.
This was the first meeting
between the BJP and the Congress leaders after the Chief Economic Advisor
Arvind Subramaniam"s report was submitted
on Friday signalling a forward movement on the GST Bill. While the Subramaniam
Committee has already met one of the crucial demands of the Congress and
dropped the 1% inter-state tax for the benefit of manufacturing states, no
solution could be found on the ticklish issue of mentioning of standard tax
rate in the Constitution Amendment Bill. Another issue that cropped up during
the Jaitley-Sharma meeting was exclusion of alcohol, real estate, electricity
and petroleum from the GST regime. The Congress wants them to be included at
the outset of the GST regime.
But the Subramaniam panel has
suggested that these can be brought under the GST within 3-5 years time-frame.
The GST regime can be strengthened gradually rather than going whole hog and
implement the same in one go on April 1, 2016. The final draft of the GST Bill
will be presented to the Rajya Sabha only after these discussions are taken to
a logical conclusion. While Anand Sharma will brief his senior party leaders of
the proposals made by the government, Jaitley will have to work hard to bring
states on board. The GST Bill may have been listed for the week beginning
Monday in the Rajya Sabha but it will take some shape only on Thursday and the
final decision on the Bill only in the third week of December. Besides, both
sides agreed that steps be taken to ensure creating a congenial atmosphere in
Parliament and way out be found on the Gen. V K Singh issue. The Congress has
already decided not to allow minister of state for external affairs Gen. V K
Singh to speak in Parliament.
